Failed OS TWICE! :(

Well i took the OS twice already, i studied my ass off with cramsession bookletts and Transcender practice exam's and any other free practice exam i could come across. I scored 95% and above on ever practice test ive taken. So I go to take the test confindent in passing and studied all objectives but somehow i still fail, my Scores were 501 first time and then 498 2nd time, the testing center placed me in the same computer as i failed it the first time same as the second time, I am just totally confused, thinking could it be the computer? I dont know, just extremly bummed

any advice would be appreciated. Thank you

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Non-Profit Techie

is there a particular area that the exam sheet says you need work in?

qazxswedc

its my opinion, the cramsession free book, is not the best choice, try paying for a book that will cover all aspects of the exam in more detail, and yeah, look over the areas where you had most trouble on, and you will do fine next time.

Plantwiz

It's highly unlikely that a computer is the cause of the problem.

How well do you know the material on the Objectives? If you haven't downloaded a copy from CompTIA, please do so.

How did you do with the questions and TechNotes here? Read through and understand them?

As already mentioned above, which areas were you told you needed more practice? This will help you prepare moving forward, so review what is written at the bottom of your test score.

And if you are going into the exams with NO work experience, then you are at a real disadvantage. The exam is geared toward someone with at least 500 working hours (and not 500 board swapper hours), so get some old hardware, take things apart, put htem together, install various OS and go through the settings to become familar with the material.

The exam is pretty easy, though I too had been working with computers since around '81-'82 and didn't bother taking the A+ (or any exams) until having over 10 years working experience. I didn't use any practice exams and had no idea what I was in for when I step in for my exam. I did buy a copy of Meyers A-I-O book (first edition), but never opened the CD in the back.

Keep working at it, if it is something that you want to do and it does interest you, then a bit more study won't hurt. If you don't think you want to work wtih hardware anyway, skip the A+ and focus on the exams that will help you in your career path.

Also consider the standard exam prep:
1. sleep well night before
2. Study hard up to two days prior then only light review (no cramming)
3. No carbs (like pasta, potatoes, etc...) Veggies ok. Fish (brain food), etc..
4. Take the exam at the time of day you are most alert.
5. Get to the test center early and relax a bit before signing in.
6. Use all your time
7. Mark questions you need to go back to review, but typically your first answer is correct. As with even college exams, sometimes the next question in the list can help you answer a previous question so read through things first, answer the ones you know, and hit the rest but don't waste time...either know it or you don't.

Try again

howareu

Thanks for the quick feed back everyone, i will take your advice to heart and work on a lot more and go over every objective a few more times, and relaxing before signing in is a good idea, as the past 2 times i went i just walked in and took the test, but the first time i took hardware i was waiting for the testing center to get everything straight, and i passed. Thanks for your help again and i should be taking the test in a few weeks.

sujee27

how many times did you do the same transcender test?? 90%+ in transcender and you still failed is not believable there is more to this...

howareu

well when i was in school i took the test everyday twice a day, also other pre-test online and i studied as hard and much i could with 90+ results everytime. Its just very confusing to me and i dont know how i failed. Right now im just going to take time from the test relax over the summer and hit the books again in the fall and prep for the test in early winter.

TeKniques

howareu wrote:

well when i was in school i took the test everyday twice a day, also other pre-test online and i studied as hard and much i could with 90+ results everytime. Its just very confusing to me and i dont know how i failed.

Memorizing practice questions and going over the same test over and over is not a good way to gauge your readiness for the exam. With Transcender, the key is to read a book, review your weak topics and then take the first practice test. After the first test, review your weak topics and then try the second one. And then repeat the process for the third test.

Usually when you take the same practice test for the second time, it is still a pretty good indicator on how ready you are. Also, the Transcender has excellent write ups on why an answer is right and why one is wrong. Make sure you understand these.

howareu wrote:

Right now im just going to take time from the test relax over the summer and hit the books again in the fall and prep for the test in early winter.

For the A+ exam??? To be honest, I think that's crazy unless you really want to put it off that long. IMO, you should go buy the Mike Myers AIO guide and read it cover to cover and then try another practice exam vendor such as Self Test (same company owns this as Transcender) or UCertify. With some effort you could be ready to pass this exam in 1 month with proper preparation.

Of course there could be a lot of other factors in there that could be limiting your time to study, but if you're hungry for it ... go get it!

Good luck!

scottcuk1

howareu wrote:

Well i took the OS twice already, i studied my ass off with cramsession bookletts and Transcender practice exam's and any other free practice exam i could come across. I scored 95% and above on ever practice test ive taken. So I go to take the test confindent in passing and studied all objectives but somehow i still fail, my Scores were 501 first time and then 498 2nd time, the testing center placed me in the same computer as i failed it the first time same as the second time, I am just totally confused, thinking could it be the computer? I dont know, just extremly bummed any advice would be appreciated. Thank you

Best advice has already been mentioned. What areas are you worse off than others? Transcender is good for giving you an idea. Take your worst ones and work twice as hard on them. It worked for me.

TheFORCE

your not the only one. i too failed this exam twice. last time i failed it for 5 points. thats like 1 or 2 questions. but im studying now more, the thing is not to memorize the questions. now that im reading again i see where i might have made a lot of mistakes. for example questions about ASR, ERD and ESD. im sure i totally destoryed those questions. now i know the difference and thus the correct answer.

nel

i would take everything here said on board. get the exam cram parctice questions ....like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0789731088/026-1152203-3011640?v=glance&n=266239&s=gateway&v=glance

when you take the exam re-read the question at least twice before answering, ive found once you understand the q, you can look at the answers and use process of elimanation. because seriously some of the q's and a's ive seen on comptia exams are ridiculous!

gd luck and keep at it.

have a look at that book, it has 500 q's (maybe more) on each section of os and h/w. it also comes on cd. it contains all the questions and more that are used on the preplogic exam which you pay 6-7 x's more! take a look man, its better than taking the same tests day in day out. it also comes with detailed answers.

billg

You don't sound like you were very serious about taking the exam. You studied some FREE handouts and took some FREE practice tests. Big deal. So you were able to answer some practice questions. Anyone who is serious about passing exams is going to buy some books and really study and not rely only on practice exams. I usually use about 4 books for each exam I am going to take and I score in the 700s. Those who just take practice tests and use handouts are trying to do the least amount of work that they can to pass the test. My experience shows that this carries over into their work area also. The goal of studying is not to pass the test alone but to know the material well. You can't do that just from practice tests and handouts.

Daniel333

Hey man, seriously a few free books are not gonna help you.
I went and bought two books and used about 5 others from a local college library when I did my A+. At one point I had 1000+ flash cards. I had so many IO addresses and IRQ memorized, it was not even funny.

But in all fairness, I had a 4 boot system set up too.

NT, 2k, Xp, 98 all running. When ever I had to learn something, I did it on all three platforms.

Just trying to get a winmodem working on all of those, gives you a solid appriciation of how awsome xp has been.